NEW YORK — Japan’s Gatsby, a men’s grooming brand in Asia, is moving forward with the U.S. expansion of its hair wax line, Moving Rubber, by increasing its presence within Ricky’s NYC locations.

After two months of successful testing in five Manhattan Ricky’s NYC locations, the brand can now be found on the shelves of all Ricky’s NYC stores, including Ricky’s NYC stores in Miami.

“As the destination for all things cult beauty, Ricky’s NYC jumped at the chance to carry a fan favorite like Gatsby. Our customers love discovering new, unique international brands — especially when it comes to hair products, and we are more than happy to oblige them. This is truly the beginning of a stylish partnership,” stated Lorne Lucree, director of marketing at Ricky’s NYC.

The Gatsby Moving Rubber hair wax line, with 73% market share in the men’s hair wax category, recorded No.1 sales again in Japan in 2013, the brand stated. Since its launch in 2006, more than 100 million units of Moving Rubber were sold to more than 10 countries and regions in Asia.

From casually arranged to elaborative hairstyles, Gatsby promises any desired look to be created easily and by anyone with the use of the Moving Rubber product. Once Moving Rubber is applied to the hair — preferably dry — rearranging the style throughout the day is made easy due to the “moveability” and hold of the product.

The line includes Spiky Edge for strong holding power that keeps hair spiked all day; Wild Shake to create a causal messed-up look; Air Rise to create volume with a light, soft finish; and Cool Wet to maintain the desired hold with a cool wet look.

Fitbit app to be pre-loaded on the new HTC One (M8) smartphone

SAN FRANCISCO — Fitbit on Wednesday announced that its activity and sleep trackers now sync directly with 44 Android and iOS devices, up from 26 in early January. In addition, to bring health and fitness tracking to even more users, Fitbit also announced Wednesday that the free Fitbit app will be pre-loaded on the new HTC One (M8), allowing users to track their activity with just their smartphone.

“By combining the most product choices for health and fitness tracking with compatibility to the largest number of devices, users can choose what best fits their lifestyle and have better success in reaching their health and fitness goals,” stated James Park, CEO Fitbit.

Expanding health and fitness tracking to even more people, Fitbit and HTC announced a partnership this week where the Fitbit app will come pre-loaded on the new HTC One (M8) device in select regions and is available to HTC One (M8) owners anywhere that Fitbit can be downloaded from the Google Play store. The Fitbit app allows users to track basic activity, including steps taken, distance travelled and calories burned. They can set fitness goals and then see their achievements right on their HTC BlinkFeed home screen and lock screen. By combining HTC’s power-saving sensor hub with the power and accuracy of the Fitbit app, users can track their fitness and stay motivated with just their smartphone. They can also challenge, compete or encourage other users who have a Fitbit tracker3 or are utilizing the app on their phone. As the top downloaded app in its category, Fitbit has a large community, helping users stay motivated by sharing and competing with anyone that has the Fitbit app.

Instant access to up-to-date data on mobile devices makes it easy to integrate fitness into everyday life, Fitbit noted. Fitbit’s activity trackers sync via Bluetooth 4.0 to the widest variety of mobile devices across both Android and iOS platforms. The Fitbit app is the top downloaded app for connected fitness devices on both Google Play and Apple iTunes stores.

Android users are rapidly embracing the Fitbit app, with more than 1 million downloads from the Google Play store and a 4-star rating. In a recent study by app analytics firm Distimo, the free Fitbit app accounted for 83% of device installs on Google Play among top fitness tracker apps. The Distimo study also verified that Fitbit dominates companion apps for fitness trackers competition on iOS with 72% of downloads.

Regardless of platform, with direct syncing to the free Fitbit app, users can see real-time activity stats from Fitbit’s family of activity and sleep trackers, which measure everything from steps taken, distance travelled, calories burned, active minutes and floors climbed to sleep quality. Fitbit’s mobile and online tools are proven to boost motivation (users with one or more friends are 27% more active) with features like notifications, badges and leaderboards; reach goals faster with a little friendly competition using the cheer, taunt and direct message functions with friends. Fitbit users take 43% more steps with Fitbit products, the company reported.

CVS Caremark awarded three-year FEP contract

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark has been awarded a three-year contract to provide integrated PBM for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Government-wide Service Benefit Plan, also known as the Federal Employee Program.

The company stated that it will continue to provide retail PBM services, mail service pharmacy, specialty pharmacy services and highly customized clinical programs to FEP’s more than 5 million federal employees, retirees and dependents. The new agreement, which runs through 2017, brings the relationship between CVS Caremark and FEP to more than 20 years.

"FEP is a highly valued client and we are committed to delivering the same high level of service and patient satisfaction that we have provided to FEP’s federal employees, retirees and their families for many years," stated Jon Roberts, president of the CVS Caremark PBM business. "We are pleased that FEP continues to recognize the value and services that CVS Caremark provides to their plan and members."

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